Er Tread
by theweepingblade
Summary: Four penguins follow the trail of an otter bound for a facility. Problems arise when said otter and a certain penguin get more than what they bargained for. Experimental Deity style. Rating subject to juxtaposition. Skipper stole the rest of the summar


**A/N: Experimental style. Review if you'd like to see more. Once again, thanks for reading. Skipper/Marlene is sure to arise sometime.  
**

One morning, all as not as it seemed to be. From beneath the painted façade of Central Park Zoo, something was amiss.

Four penguins commenced their morning workouts, striking impossibly fast with their appendages. In a lemur habitat, one may mistake two of the lemurs as slaves, but the third lemur, the one with the peculiar accent, would hastily disagree with that assumption. In the marine habitat, a solitary mammal slept soundly in her bunk, her vivid green eyes shut and her breathing slow and calm.

It was the otter that was to be the center of the attention; however, the penguins would have none of that.

The zookeeper knew that something was wrong with the penguins. But it was a feeling, less than a hunch while slightly more than that twinge in your little toe. But feelings could not be doubted when a prized mammal was at stake. She ordered the penguins into a yearly checkup, and then had the precious otter safely escorted into a crate and deported.

After all, female otters were so hard to come by. Especially one as favorable as..wait, what was her name? Mary? Marley?

Ah, well, I am sure it will come to me.

* * *

"Hoover dam!" It was a peculiar expression. The language was toned down, but made a better point that "Flying pound cakes!" and that sort. Skipper, with his steely demeanor and flat head, made an excellent leader, making comments at all the right times. He was a statue to the subordinates, someone to look up but was still the receiving end of bird feces.

The penguins would always take a defensive pose when something was wrong, but they were usually only allowed to go into a defensive pose if that wrong thing was something far away.

The otter's disappearance was serious, and Skipper made sure his men knew it was serious by repeating that is was 'not a drill'. They combed her habitat, Skipper making sure that they had checked and violated every inch of Marlene's personal space.

Next, Kowalski made plans. This is what he was born to do: think, create and conjure ideas. With haste, he had deduced that they were sent to the vet as a diversion, and that Marlene had been meanwhile ambushed and kidnapped. Kowalski's opinion was instantly accepted by his men. Kowalski had the trust of his group, something he took very seriously.

"To the office." Skipper did not make commands, but rather, statements that everyone ended up following anyway. They managed to break through the office door with their machismo penguin kung fu, and combed through the documents.

Not being able to read was a major flaw of penguins, and it was painfully obvious every time Skipper tried to run the operation. He did not like to enlist outside help; especially for an operation as crucial as the rescue of his beautiful (did he really think that? He shook his head to get that adjective out of his head) Marlene.

The two chimps were happy to be of assistance, though Skipper always thought that their helping may be a little too willing, and too friendly. He made the mental note to subject them to harsh interrogation, but after the operation was finished.

* * *

She was being exported to a facility. Kowalski had the funny feeling that the chimps were not telling the penguins everything. "Marlene is being brought to a..uh..b-facility. That's all." Seemed conclusive enough, and it would have to do.

The zoo did not keep tight tabs on the animals, something the penguins frequently took advantage of. They made their way to a local traffic office, and easily dispatched the officer's watching the traffic cameras.

The penguins had perfected the flipper of death. It was an obscure kung fu move taught by Skipper, and was only known by two other animals, a comatose giraffe and a platypus, currently running for President. It struck human's in a fundamental weak point, and rendered them unconscious. In later autopsies, the doctors would say that their injury was caused by cancer. The penguins were that good.

Private was the team's special operations, which mean he was called in to do any task that the other penguins did not feel like doing. Private's codebreaking skills were legendary, a feat only mirrored by Alfrezco Phuf, an obscure penguin that had died from cancer. After several slaps from Skipper, Private had broken the code and that penguins had access to all the traffic cams.

They followed the trail of the truck Marlene was loaded onto, and Kowalski drew a crude map. Then, they penguins slid away. The traffic office would be found three hours later when another officer came to work his shift. All he would find were two unconscious figures and a single penguin feather.


End file.
